Sen. Roger Marshall (R-KS) spent nearly four times more taxpayer money than previously thought on travel to an out-of-state home that is quickly becoming a re-election liability despite his efforts to sell it.
A new Kansas City Star analysis found Marshall billed taxpayers $18,886 for 14 official trips that included stops in the Sarasota area between 2021 and 2024.
The Star and Politico first reported the Florida travel story in September 2024, when the total appeared to be roughly $4,500.
Marshall listed the three-bedroom, two-bath beachfront house on March 30 for $1.45 million, the Star reported. The asking price is higher than the property’s current Sarasota County assessed value of $921,100 — down from just under $1.3 million before back-to-back hurricanes struck the area in fall 2024 — according to the Star.
“An exceptional opportunity awaits to create your dream waterfront retreat in one of Sarasota’s most desirable locations,” the listing reads. “This unique property offers the rare chance to either complete the existing structure to your exact specifications or design and build a custom home tailored to your vision.”
Earlier this month, Marshall told the Topeka Capital Journal the house had been uninhabitable since fall 2024.
“I only wish I had a home in Florida,” Marshall told the Capital Journal on Aug. 10. “Our home in Florida was destroyed by a hurricane almost two years ago.”
The taxpayer-funded trips to the Sarasota area stopped in July 2024 — two months before Politico first exposed them and weeks before the hurricanes hit, the Star noted.
The new analysis of Senate expense filings shows Marshall charged taxpayers nearly $12,000 for airfare and transportation, more than $6,000 in per diem payments and $689 in incidental expenses.
In one instance, on Dec. 18, 2021, Marshall’s office paid $318 to fly him from Washington to Sarasota — five days after he signed off on a boat lift installation at the property in a document notarized in Washington, according to the Star.
Marshall reportedly sold his Great Bend, Kansas, home 10 days after being sworn into the Senate in January 2021. The Florida property was then valued at more than eight times his Kansas cabin.
“My wife wanted a second place to go visit,” Marshall told reporters at a Topeka campaign stop. “I didn’t ever get there very often.”
The residency questions have become a central line of attack in what is now a near-toss-up Senate race, according to PollingSource.
“Shouldn’t our senator actually live in Kansas!?” the campaign of the Rev. Adam Hamilton, a United Methodist pastor running as a Democrat against Marshall, posted on social media on Wednesday.
“Hamilton should know that people in glass houses shouldn’t throw a stone — he owns four homes, two of which are in Missouri,” Marshall’s chief of staff Brent Robertson shot back in a statement to the Star.
However, the Hamilton campaign has continued to use Marshall’s travel to Sarasota to attack him.
“Roger Marshall sold his house (in Great Bend) in Kansas 10 days after being sworn in, and has spent nearly $20,000 on taxpayer-funded travel to his home in Florida,” Hamilton campaign spokesperson Glynnis Harvey said.
“Selling his Florida house now that he’s in a close election won’t cover his tracks and doesn’t change the fact that Roger Marshall doesn’t listen to Kansans, won’t hold town halls, and has become part of the problem in Washington,” Harvey added.
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